Previews

Hands-on with Rage

I don't play first-person shooters. I generally (with a few notable exceptions) dislike the first-person viewpoint, I've got the worst aim in human history, and I feel an irrational need to see the person I'm controlling in a game. Hell, the last single-player FPS I played all the way through was Doom II. All things considered, I am decidedly not the target audience for Rage, id Software's upcoming post-apocalyptic FPS. And, bearing that in mind, I actually found it pretty enjoyable, against all odds.

Rage is essentially Post-Apocalypse: The Game. The trope-factory does double-time in Rage's ravaged world: Threadbare settlements nest in the ruins of run-down towns, desperate pockets of civilization cobble technology together from any scraps they can find, basic necessities like water and gas are more valuable than gold, disagreeable mutant gangsters haunt the uncivilized wasteland... and everything is very, very brown.

Gunz and mutantz.

Sound generic? Based on what I played -- that is, the first few missions -- it certainly comes across that way. But well-executed tropes aren't necessarily bad, and neither is Rage's presentation: Its quest-based gameplay is well-paced, rewarding, and flexible. Wipe out a hive of mutants; drum up some distributor caps and spark plugs to fix a broken-down buggy; fire some flares to sound the trouble alert for an allied outpost; learn what became of a missing worker (spoiler: nothing good). It's the kind of stuff you expect from such a setting, but it's doled out in the style of a role-playing game, with a certain je ne sais quoi that kept me curious about what lay beyond the next hill.

And the gunplay interested me -- mostly thanks to the somewhat crafty A.I., since I can't aim worth a damn, and a gun is a gun is a gun, to me. Rage's hostiles don't sit idly by and take a full clip to the chest; my attempts at careful aiming were constantly thwarted by ducking, weaving, zigzagging foes who gave me as little time and opportunity as possible to line up shots before bum-rushing my sorry ass. Tag a foe, and he staggers out of your line of fire. Pop out a headshot, and prepare to keep firing when you hit nothing but helmet. Take someone down, and check twice to make sure he's out... a prone-but-living foe can still ventilate you while he bleeds out. Stick to cover, or kiss your ass goodbye.

Carz and 'splosionz.

One thing that rang loud-and-clear for me was Rage's linearity. You're directed quite rigidly from point A to point B (and back to point A, with a few forays into different areas of the conveniently laid-out local mutant den); it's not necessarily an off-putting thing, as the early game certainly needs some structure while it's teaching you the ropes, but I find myself hoping that the world (and its mission structure) opens up once you cut your teeth on a few mandatory quests. Your vehicular options -- I earned access to an ATV and a buggy in short order -- paint this as an inevitability.

Speaking of vehicles, I wish Rage's driving mechanics made better (or, really, any) use of the mouse. A Bethesda Softworks representative advised me to use the attached Xbox 360 controller to navigate my buggy, but I stuck to my trusty keyboard-and-mouse. WASD controls make sense for acceleration and braking, but I'd trade the A and D keys for a more refined mouselook-powered turning solution any day... especially when high-speed wrecks lead to quick and messy deaths. I unfortunately didn't get a glimpse at any of the vehicle customization options -- which I hear are quite detailed, allowing you to outfit your buggy with all manner of firearms and souped-up parts -- but I imagine Rage has plenty of fast-paced drive-and-shoot missions in store for the wheelmen among you.

As I said, I'm no shooter expert, but the after-the-end setting piques my interest. Knowing myself, I'll probably have forgotten all about Rage by the time it actually hits Steam, but for now, this is one shooter I could see myself actually playing. That's something!

Spy Guy says: Are you pumped for Rage, despite (or perhaps because of) its somewhat generic post-apocalyptic setting? What do you think of its mission-based structure?